The present invention relates to an improvement in collapsible receptacles of the type disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 184,502, filed Sept. 29, 1971, now U.S. Pat No. 3,782,579, dated Jan. 1, 1974. The disclosure of this U.S. application is hereby incorporated by reference herein to the extent necessary for a complete understanding of the present invention.
The above-mentioned application describes a collapsible receptacle with or without a lid in which the lower end of the walls is hingedly connected with the base frame via bolts introduced into holes in such a way that each hole associated with a hinge bolt is in the form of a slot-like oblong hole open at its upper end which has a greater length than the cross-sectional size of the hinge bolt and with which is associated a blocking means which prevents the removal of a hinge bolt from its oblong hole.
To ensure that the walls of such receptacles can be easily assembled and that during assembly no specific sequence need be adhered to and whereby in addition the walls can without difficulty be replaced by others without however such collapsible receptacles having loose members, the instruction is given in the above-mentioned application that the oblong holes for at least two facing walls have identical length and their ends have the same distance from the receptacle base and that the blocking means associated with each oblong hole has such a distance from the lower end of the oblong hole that displacement of the hinge bolt permits superimposition of the walls. The upper end of each oblong hole relative to the cross-sectional size of the associated hinge bolt is narrowed to a smaller opening with and this construction is removable or elastically enlargeable. The opening of each oblong hole can also be arranged in the longitudinal wall on the inside of the receptacle. It is also recommended that all oblong holes be given the same length corresponding to the sum of the wall thickness of the four walls of the receptacle. These oblong holes are in each case formed in a corner member fixed to the receptacle base frame.
It is also recommended that the frame surrounding the base of the receptacle and the walls thereof be provided with point shaped or linearly interacting stop members which engage in one another when the walls are assembled.
An object of the present invention is to so further develop the collapsible receptacles of the type disclosed in the above-mentioned application that each wall maintains itself in its position in the erected state. This problem is solved according to the invention in that on each wall an outwardly directed projection is provided which overlaps an inwardly directed projection of the base frame. These projections ensure that each wall can be moved inwardly from its erected position in the sense of a collapse of the receptacle only if the wall is raised by that amount by which the projection of the wall overlaps the projection of the base frame. Such a receptacle wall can in practice also not be forced inwards because the outwardly directed projection stiffens the wall over its complete width. Furthermore the forces acting in the plane of the erected wall via the projection are uniformly transmitted into the base frame which is important in that collapsible receptacles of this type are stacked one upon the other for example when transported in vehicles.
It is also contemplated by the present invention that each wall be provided with a further outwardly directed projection which overlaps the inwardly directed projection of the base frame. This prevents the wall being unintentionally raised relative to the base frame because through the further outwardly directed projection the wall can only be raised relative to the base frame when it is intentionally placed in an inclined position.
According to a further feature of the present invention, the outwardly directed wall projection of each wall overlapping the base frame projection should preferably be in the form of a rim which deflects water outwardly which ensures that water falling on the outside of the receptacle cannot reach the inside of the receptacle.
The invention is subsequently explained relative to two exemplified embodiments wherein are shown only the features essential for the present invention, thus for example the openings associated with each oblong hole necessary to remove the hinge bolts of the walls from the oblong holes in the base frame are not shown.